Continuity and Change in Second-Century Christianity: A Narrative Against the Trend

Professor Lewis Ayres, University of Durham

About the speaker: Professor Lewis Ayres is Professor of Catholic and Historical Theology in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham. He has published many books on Patristic and Early Christian Theology including Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Trinitarian Theology (Oxford, 2004) and Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge, 2010). He is currently working on a monograph which will concern the shifts in Patristic exegesis between AD 150 and 250.

About the lecture: In recent times the second century of the Christian era has been of interest to scholars because of the apparent plurality of Christianity during this period. Many "gospels" were produced which were not accepted into the Christian canon, and many forms of Christian belief and practice existed which were very different from those that were eventually defined as "orthodox". But how accurate is this picture? Can we continue to speak of a significant continuity between the earliest Christian texts we know and the Christianity that developed into Nicene "orthodoxy" in the centuries that followed? This lecture will suggest a new paradigm for considering diversity in and continuity across second century Christianity.